A Refreshing Night at WSSF’s Pro Photographer Showdown!

A Refreshing Night at WSSF’s Pro Photographer Showdown!

Refreshing.
 
That’s the best word I can think of to describe the Olympus Pro Photographer Showdown, 2015 Edition, at the World Ski and Snowboard Festival.
 
And it’s not just because the show started off with some mighty refreshing looking waves from surf photographer Todd Glaser.
 
A slight tweak in the format of the show helped restore it to the caliber of days of yore. Instead of asking pro photographers to submit applications and sample slideshows to participate, the event organizers hand picked some of the top actions sports photographers in the world. It may seem like a minor change, but it brought out the next level of photographers, who I imagine are often too busy to put together the usual application. To be put it simply, this year, the field was stacked.
 
To make the show even sweeter, the five presenting photographers represented a variety of action sports. Instead of watching ski photo after ski photo, we were treated to surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and mountain biking shots, in addition to skiing. The range of sports represented kept the audience glued to the screen all night long.

 

As I mentioned earlier, Californian Todd Glaser kicked off the evening with a presentation of surf shots from around the world. His show featured waves as big as buildings, sunsets like whoa, and photos that took viewers inside the wave. It was exactly what was needed to set the tone for the evening.

 

Next up was local legend Reuben Krabbe. For six years, Reuben has been traveling the globe and taking killer photos to build a well-rounded portfolio for this very night. His hard work paid off: there absolutely was no filler in his show, each photo squeezing a “wow” out of me. The show focused on two action sports, skiing and mountain biking, but it wasn’t all about action – the landscapes, animals, and portraits were just as stunning as the sport shots.
 
After playing in the surf, snow, and dirt, the audience was treated to a whole new environment with Brian Gaberman’s show. Based out of California, Brian is a skateboard photographer, and his show proved that concrete could look just as awesome as water or snow.
 
Intermission came and went, and the buzz amongst audience members was whether the final two photographers could hold their own against the level of work we had just seen. Spoiler alert: they could.

Swede Mattias Fredrikkson’s (who was not there in person) energetic show proved just that. His show stood out to me in that it seemed to be categorized more by themes, shapes, and patterns than by sport or location, mixing skiing and mountain biking photos into a super fun, playful presentation.
 
When host Mike Douglas introduced Red Bull Illume grand prize winner, Lorenz Holder, confessing he was a superfan, I knew we were in for something special. Lorenz’s show was, quite simply, a people pleaser. The crowd ate up this German photographer's snowboard photos (peppered with a few surf and skate shots, too), hooting and hollering at the bright colours, the fine details, and the overall insane beauty of each shot.

 

While the judges deliberated over the five shows, the audience attempted to recover from the delightful sensory overload they’d experienced over the previous two hours. Voting by ping pong began for the People’s Choice award, where the audience showed their love and support for Reuben Krabbe’s flawless show.
 
And then it was time for the winner to be announced. Truthfully, this is my least favourite part of the evening. Each of the artists poured their souls into their presentations, and they all produced truly exceptional shows. But the $10,000 grand prize has to go to someone, and that someone was Lorenz Holder.

 

This was the best Pro Photographer Showdown I’ve seen in years, and I think it will set the tone for the shows of festivals future. In other words, make a point of checking out next year’s show – if it’s anything like the one we saw last night, it will blow your mind.

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